delay in the release of preliminary results on the scheduled date of 8 August. Concern was expressed about delays in announcing results reducing their usefulness. Analysis and evaluation The tests are not a high stakes event in a student's education. It is a snapshot of a student's current abilities. The tests do not measure higher-order thinking skills or creativity. NAPLAN is a tool intended to be used for school improvement. Data from NAPLAN is modelled according to the item response theory. This allows for comparisons to be made between tests, a process known as equating. Validity and reliability The down side of NAPLAN can be seen when teachers are teaching to the test rather than teaching to the curriculum as can be seen in Victoria where according to Perkins (2010) teachers have been told to "teach explicitly for the national tests that are the cornerstone of the Federal Government's controversial My School website". NAPLAN is also valid in that "special provisions which typically will reflect the support normally provided in the classroom may be provided to students with disabilities or special needs". The Validity and Reliability in Quality Assessment in relation to NAPLAN can be summed up by ACARA in that they use an equating process to "provide a high level of assurance as to the reliability of comparisons between years" and that this process ensures that "any test difference has been taken into account before making statements about one year's results compared to the next". Flexibility and fairness On the point of fairness it is important not to just rate the fairness of the test itself but to also rate the procedure of giving the test as well. Apart from the fact that the test is given mid-year so not all learning may have been successfully completed as would be expected by the end of the year for that particular grade, writes that Queensland Teachers Union president Steve Ryan said some schools "probably have devoted too much time to NAPLAN". Although the test itself is extremely fair in that all students perform the same test nationwide, it also does not seem to take into account the fact that students in schools don't just comprise the average but also include the likes of special needs students. ACARA points out that "Students can be exempted from one or more NAPLAN tests if they have significant intellectual or functional disability or if